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Bush warns Russia on the rule of law

BRUSSELS — President George W. Bush warned Russia on Monday that it "must renew a commitment to democracy and the rule of law," but he said he believed its future lay "within the family of Europe and the trans-Atlantic community."

The president's words, delivered in a major speech on U.S.-European relations at the start of a four-day trip to Belgium, Germany and Slovakia, were his toughest yet about President Vladimir Putin's rollback of democratic reforms in Russia and crackdown on dissent.

Bush is to meet with Putin on Thursday in Bratislava, Slovakia.

"We recognize that reform will not happen overnight," Bush said in the grand setting of the Concert Noble, a 19th-century hall in Brussels. "We must always remind Russia, however, that our alliance stands for a free press, a vital opposition, the sharing of power and the rule of law - and the United States and all European countries should place democratic reform at the heart of their dialogue with Russia."

In the evening, Bush had a small dinner for President Jacques Chirac of France and appeared comfortable next to the man who had infuriated him by aggressively opposing the American-led invasion of Iraq.

But when a French reporter asked Bush if relations had improved enough for him to ask Chirac to his ranch, Bush joked, "I'm looking for a good cowboy."

Bush did add that "this is my first dinner, since I've been re-elected, on European soil, and it's with Jacques Chirac - and that ought to say something."

After the dinner, a senior Bush administration official said that Chirac and Bush had discussed Iraq, Iran, the Middle East and U.S. opposition to the European Union's plans to lift an arms embargo on China.

The official said that "there will be more discussion" on the arms embargo, but neither side appeared to have budged in its position.

Over all, the official said, the dinner was positive. "If I say frank, that's the wrong word, because it's usually the euphemism for bad," the official said. "I would use the word productive."

In his speech at the Concert Noble, Bush offered an elaboration of U.S. policy in the Middle East, emphasizing that a new nation of Palestine must be made up of "contiguous territory" on the West Bank and that "a state of scattered territories will not work."

The president said emphatically that Syria must withdraw its troops from Lebanon and that "without Syrian interference, Lebanon's parliamentary elections in the spring can be another milestone of liberty."

On Iran, Bush said that the government there must end its support of terrorism and not develop nuclear weapons. He noted that in American dealings with Iran, "no option can be taken permanently off the table."

But in the next sentence Bush stepped back from the threat of military force and said that "we're in the early stages of diplomacy."

White House officials had promoted Bush's 31-minute speech as a major embrace of European unity and released excerpts on Sunday night suggesting that Bush would extensively support the idea of the 25-member European Union as a partner rather than a rival to the United States.

But he did not devote more than a few sentences to those ideas and cast his support for a new European unity in the context of his goal of advancing liberty.

"America supports Europe's democratic unity for the same reason we support the spread of democracy in the Middle East - because freedom leads to peace," Bush said. "And America supports a strong Europe because we need a strong partner in the hard work of advancing freedom in the world."

Bush spoke to an audience of some 300 European officials, business leaders and academics under five enormous crystal chandeliers and a domed ceiling and was framed by a gilt-edged doorway draped with luxurious folds of crimson silk. Before the president's arrival, the sounds of Beethoven's Sixth Symphony filled the room.

He received warm but not enthusiastic applause, a response that two senior Bush administration officials insisted was typical of the restrained European response to politicians' speeches.

But some people in the audience said that Europeans would be disappointed by Bush's words.